Sermon Tone Analysis

When I turned 15, I started attending Calvary Temple church in Fredericktown… it’s now known as just Calvary Church.

It was the largest church in town, so the youth group was pretty large.

I think we averaged about 40 people on a Wednesday night.

Anyway, after being there for a while… and really trying to be involved… I was put on the student leadership team.

Which basically meant, I would lead a small group and occasionally teach in that small group.

Problem is… I didn’t really understand what this was.

Now… Here’s what I mean by that.

I knew that this was God’s Word… I knew that God loved me… I knew that Jesus died for me… and I’m not trying to pat myself on the back or anything, but I could put a lesson together that would make most adults think… Wow… this kid really knows his stuff.

But I didn’t.

I didn’t really know what this was or what it was truly supposed to do in my life.

Right about the time I graduated High School, I began attending Mill Creek FWB Church… And after a while of being there, I became the youth leader.

So, every Wednesday night, I was teaching the Bible to other teenagers… but honestly, I still didn’t really understand what this was.

At 19, a pastor in Bismarck asked me if I would come lead their youth group… and so I did.

And so every Sunday morning, and every Wednesday night… I was teaching the Bible.

I had also at this point started a website online called Need For Christ.

Myself, along with 3 other people were writing daily devotionals.

We grew to a point that several thousands of people were reading our devotionals every single day.

But guess what… I still didn’t really understand what the Bible was, or what it wanted to do in my life.

It wasn’t until I was here for a couple of years that I heard a sermon that went from the beginning to the end of the Bible… in one sermon… and explained the Big Picture of the Bible… and all of a sudden… The Bible made sense to me like it never had before.

I mean… I really got it.

And so, through November, we’re going to take this Big Picture overview of what the Bible teaches so that we can make sure our lives and our beliefs are ALIGNED with the overarching intent of Scripture.

So what is the big picture that we need to align ourselves with.

It starts in creation, it moves to the fall… then redemption and the new creation.

And so that’s what we’re going to look at through November… the grand story of the Bible.

But look… this is so much more than just a story… this is so much more than how the Bible is put together.

What happened to me is that I didn’t just see the Bible in a different light… but I began seeing the world around me in a different light.

If you have a child that is raised in an abusive home… chances are, that child will grow up with the idea that life itself is abusive.

If a child grows up in a home filled with opportunity, that child will likely believe that life is full of opportunities.

Our framework determines how you see everything.

When we ALIGN ourselves with the correct framework of the Scripture, it will change how you see everything.

And just in case you’re wondering why it’s going to take me an entire month to teach what I heard in one sermon… it’s because that guy was much smarter than me, and a much better preacher than me.

I know… it surprises some of you that there are better preachers than me… but there might be one or two out there… I’m not really sure…

If you have your Bible this morning, and I hope that you do, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. We’re going to begin at the beginning… and we’re going to go through Genesis 1 and 2 very quickly this morning.

Back in 2019 we did a series through the book of Genesis, so if you have some questions about Genesis, I encourage to go onto our website, or to the Faithlife App, and you can revisit those sermons where we go into a bit more detail.

But this morning, we’re going to take a quick, high-level overview of chapters 1 and 2.

There are 2 things we want to see here… First… Everything that God created in that moment was formless and empty.

This is a Hebrew play on words… Tohu & Bohu.

Nothing is formed yet and there’s nothing there yet.

The second thing is… What’s… or should I say… Who is hovering over everything?

It’s the Spirit.

The Spirit is present.

That’s going to come up over and over for us this morning.

So… tuck that idea away for just a moment, that the Spirit is there, and let’s talk about this idea of formless and empty.

Day 1… Verse 3…

So God creates light… but how does He do it?

He separates it from the darkness.

In other words, God says… light belongs in one place, and darkness belongs in another place… He separates them out… light belongs to the daytime… darkness belongs to the nightime… so I’m going to separate them and put them in their correct place.

Does that make sense?

Day 2… Verse 6…

So day 2, God says… We’ve got water all over the place, and that’s not how it should be… So… He begins bringing order to the water… He begins putting the water in the right places… just like He did with light and dark.

He puts some water up here… and takes the rest of the water and puts it down here… and the vault, which is a terrible word, but we’ll go with it for now… what’s in the middle He calls sky.

What is God doing?

He’s taking what was formless… and bringing form to it.

Are you getting the idea?

Everything making sense so far?

Look at day 3… verse 9…

You already know what I’m getting ready to say about day 3… don’t you?! God, just like He did with light and dark… just like He did for water and water… Now, God is bringing order to this water… and separating it from dry land.

So day 1… Light and dark are separated.

Day 2… Water from water is separated.

Day 3… Water and dry ground are separated.

God then… on days 1, 2, and 3 is bringing order to that which He’s created.

God brings order.

Does that make sense?

Let’s move on to day 4 and see what happens.

Verse 14…

So God puts the Sun, stars, moon, all the lights in the sky that we see… He places them.

Day and night have already been created… Light and dark have already been separated… but God now brings more organization to the order that He’s already created.

He fills what He’s created and brought order to.

Day 5… Verse 20…

So on day 2, God creates sky between the 2 waters… and so He fills that sky with birds.

On day 3, He separated water from land… now, He fills the water below with fish.

He fills what He’s created and brought order to.

Day 6 is exactly the same thing.

Day 6 He creates livestock and people.

He fills the dry land that He’s created and brought order to with the things that belong there.

Verse 24…

And if we keep reading… we see God creating mankind.

So… Days 1 through 3, God forms and brings order to that which He’s created.

Days 4 through 6, God fills His creation with what is supposed to go in each place.

It’s a very ordered creation.

It’s amazing how ordered it is… and if you observe it for just a moment, you’d see this.

For what purpose though?

We begin to see that answer in Genesis 2. Genesis chapter 1 is this big picture overview of all of creation.

Genesis chapter 2 kind of zooms in, specifically on day 6.

And in chapter 2, we begin to see the reason for God’s very organized, very ordered creation.

Look at verse 5 of chapter 2…

I love the intimacy of this Genesis 2 picture right.

God forms man from the dust of the ground… and He leans in and He *BLOWS*breathes into man the breath of life.

Now, if you go back to Genesis 1:2… remember what we’ve put on the back burner for a few moments?

The Bible says the Spirit was hovering over creation.

The word for the Spirit of God there is a really cool word… ruah… the word means, Spirit, breath, or wind.

So in Genesis 2… we see God breathing into man life… The Spirit of God… ruah… which is hovering over… now gets breathed specifically into man.

Do you get the idea.

God… who is hovering over creation… becomes very personal to man.

It shows a sense of intimacy.

It shows that we were specifically made to be in relationship to God.

We even see this in chapter 3… when it says that God came down in the cool of the day.

The way the Bible words that… it tells us that this was a normal part of the routine.

God would frequently come to walk and talk with them in the garden.

It was an intimate relationship.